


An Unexpected Gift

by Beth H (bethbethbeth)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canon Era, F/M, hoggywartyxmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-07
Updated: 2012-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-29 21:49:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/324533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethbethbeth/pseuds/Beth%20H
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What they shared that night had been largely unexpected and very sweet, but for Severus, the gift she'd given him the following morning had been even more delicious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unexpected Gift

**Author's Note:**

> _Written as a gift for albalark as part of[HoggyWartyXmas](http://hoggywartyxmas.livejournal.com/27635.html)_

It was most emphatically _not_ his first time.

Legions of former students would have been shocked - maybe even a little horrified - to discover that Severus Snape had been and continued to be thought of as reasonably 'fanciable' by some of his colleagues, both on the Light and the Dark sides of the ongoing conflict, but such was the case, and despite being (on the surface, at least) scornful of romantic entanglements, Severus wasn't about to refuse a shag when it was put on offer.

So no, it wasn't his first time. It wasn't even his first time with the Deputy Headmistress, things in the near-cloistered environment of a boarding school located in the middle of nowhere being what they were. Severus and Minerva both possessed razor sharp minds, competitive spirits, and a fondness for twelve-year single malt scotch, which was more than enough in common to be getting on with.

She couldn't help, on occasion, but remember that when she first met Severus, he was a scrawny, horribly dirty little boy, the memory of which was, quite honestly, rather off-putting. And for his part, Severus (who had grown into a not-quite-so-scrawny and quite _interestingly_ dirty man) was unable to completely disregard his suspicions about her motives in wanting to fuck him, apart from the 'wanting to fuck' part, of course. However, for the sake of satisfying their mutual desires, the two colleagues were able to put aside their reservations for the occasional tryst, though nothing near as often as either (if forced to answer honestly whilst under the influence of _Veritaserum_ ), would have preferred.

It _had_ been a long time, at least for Severus. Two years or more since a brief and altogether unsatisfying encounter with Igor Karkaroff during the first week of the TriWizard Tournament. Far longer since he'd been made to actually feel anything during the act itself, apart from the purely physical, of course.

 _This_ night, the 8th of January (and the eve of his birthday, not that Severus expected the timing to be anything more than a coincidence), was different. To begin with, neither he nor Minerva were drunk.

It wasn't as if either of them were habitual drinkers, at least not when compared to world-class tosspots like Sybil, but it would have been fair to say that a reasonable percentage (perhaps something upwards of 95%) of their previous sexual encounters owed more than a little to alcohol. Severus, especially, was rarely relaxed enough to find anything relating to the art of seduction particularly easy, but a drink or three usually went some way towards unwinding even this most tightly wound of wizards.

However, on the night of the 8th, Minerva made a point, when dinner was drawing to a close - and no alcohol at all had yet been imbibed - of joining Severus for coffee at the High Table, and with all the subtlety for which Gryffindors are known (which is to say: very little indeed), she placed her hand on his thigh and asked, eyebrow raised suggestively, whether he'd been feeling at all tense since returning to school after the winter holiday break.

Fewer than ten minutes later, Severus and Minerva were in his rooms in the dungeons, naked as robins and working together on a rather innovative and surprisingly athletic method of tension relief. By his reckoning, there continued to be lingering evidence of tension in at least one part of his anatomy until approximately 1:36 a.m., at which point he and Minerva crawled under the duvet, and after a kiss goodnight (surprisingly awkward, given what they'd been getting up to for the five hours prior to the kiss), they curled up into the warmth of each other's bodies and went to sleep.

***

It could not be said that Severus Snape was a 'morning person,' even at the best of times, but for the sake of Minerva (presently clad in one of his oldest nightshirts and just barely starting to open her eyes to the new day), he might actually have been prepared to make a bit of an effort if it hadn't been for the fact that they had a meeting of the Order of the Phoenix to attend in less than an hour.

Without so much as a glance at his erstwhile bedmate, Severus set about readying himself for the day, accompanied by the occasional complaint and less occasional muttered curses.

Minerva busied herself with Transfiguring Severus's grey cotton nightshirt into a relatively somber and altogether respectable set of black robes with a red, green, and gold tartan lining in honor of some almost-forgotten Doyle ancestors, and then brewed a pot of Brodies black tea. She placed two mugs on the desk, one for herself with just a splash of milk and one for Severus with milk, three spoons of sugar, and a small plate of shortbread which she had Summoned upon waking.

Glancing at the breakfast offerings, Severus grunted his acknowledgement, then sat down beside Minerva on the edge of the bed and bit into one of the biscuits.

"Payment for services rendered?" he said after eating all the shortbread and drinking his second cup of tea.

Minerva snorted. "Selling yourself a bit cheaply, aren't you?"

"Possibly," said Severus. "Although the shortbread isn't all that bad."

She nodded, knowing this was as close as she was likely to get to receiving a 'thank you' from the man.

"If you've finished," she said, "we need to get underway. Albus asked that we be at the meeting by 8:00 a.m."

"Yes," Severus said with a scowl. "Because God forbid I get a single fucking morning to myself, idle hands being the devil's workshop, or whatever it was my Muggle gran used to say."

"That's an idle _mind_ , surely?"

"You're so bloody competitive," Severus muttered.

Minerva just smiled, but he could distinctly hear her _thinking_ the words 'pot' and 'cauldron' and 'black.'

***

By the time they arrived at Grimmauld Place, Severus had grumbled himself into a moderately foul mood, although that wasn't exactly uncommon on meeting days. He sloped off into the most shadowed corner of the library and sat down by himself, ignoring his fellow Order members as they filed into the room.

***

Twenty minutes into the headmaster's introductory remarks, even Minerva was starting to roll her eyes a bit. There seemed to be absolutely nothing urgent on the agenda, at least nothing that had required a full meeting of the Order so early on a Saturday morning.

She had long been in the habit of ignoring Severus's repeated whinges that half the time Albus called a meeting of the Order it was with the sole intention of pissing him off, but this morning she was almost ready to admit that Severus might not be far off in his assessment. Albus _knew_ what day it was - knew it was Severus's birthday - and that the Black house was the last place he'd want to be on this day. More to the point, Minerva knew for a fact that Albus was aware that Severus hadn't had a single opportunity to meet with any of his Death Eater contacts in the past fortnight, and so this charade of asking him to report his latest findings - particularly when Albus had not yet asked a single other member of the Order for a status update - was utterly ridiculous.

In fact, it was actually rather mean-spirited, and it was _that_ realization which removed the last of Minerva's lingering hesitation about the plans she had set in motion for this morning.

"...for the third time, Headmaster, I have nothing to add."

Albus tilted his head to one side and smiled benignly. "Oh, surely there's _something_ you can share, Severus, as long as we're all gathered together like this."

Minerva could tell by the set of Severus's jaw just how angry he was. That he wasn't currently raging at Albus was either an indication of the latent respect he had for the older wizard or the sudden onset of an incredibly powerful case of laryngitis - and quite honestly, the latter was more believable at this particular juncture.

"Come, come, Severus," Albus said, in his most annoyingly unctuous tone of voice. "Everybody's waiting."

Minerva shook her head, then took a deep breath, certain that she'd have to be the one to take the initial plunge, but before she could say a word, Kingsley Shacklebolt leaned forward, setting his coffee cup down on the table with a thump.

"He said there wasn't anything to report, Headmaster," said Kingsley.

"He's been saying it repeatedly," added Remus wearily, making what appeared to be an almost superhuman effort not to show any response to the swift, sharp glare Severus turned in his direction when he joined in with Kingsley's unexpected defense.

"Well, yes, that's true," Albus said, still with a smile on his face, but one which no longer reached his eyes. "And yet, I seem to recall his mentioning something earlier about an appointment with...one of the Lestranges was it, Severus?"

"You know, Headmaster" said Nymphadora Tonks, sharing a look with Remus, "I don't remember Professor Snape saying anything of the kind."

"That's because he didn't, Tonks," Alastor said gruffly. "What are you playing at, Albus? Was there any real purpose for this meeting, apart from badgering Snape?"

Alastor leaned forward, his hands on his thighs, and waited, along with his fellow Order members, for the headmaster's answer, but most of Minerva's attention was drawn by Severus, on whose face she was quite certain she'd never seen such a shocked expression. He looked almost comically dumbfounded, but Minerva couldn't say she blamed him one bit. After all, _she'd_ been the one responsible for orchestrating that little birthday demonstration of support (which Albus had unwittingly made unbelievably easy to do), yet she was possibly more astounded than even Severus himself that Alastor Moody had been part of the day's chorus; knowing the longstanding antipathy between Alastor and Severus, Minerva hadn't even considered including Alastor in her small group of co-conspirators.

Which meant that Alastor's reaction to the headmaster's unkind game-playing was completely sincere. It _hadn't_ indicated a softening of his feelings about Severus - no, that would have beggared belief - but it surprised Minerva that hearing only one or two choice comments from a few people that Alastor liked and respected was able to elicit an honest reaction from a man who was one of Albus's oldest friends in the world.

***

All good things come to an end, and after a few more minutes of uncharacteristic Headmaster Critiquing, so too had the first - and quite probably last - gathering of the Severus Snape Appreciation Society. Albus took the critical comments with surprisingly good humor and within very little time had charmed most of the assembled group (or Obliviated them, Severus was never entirely certain which) into forgetting that they'd ever been even slightly annoyed with him. Albus took back the undisputed title of Most Beloved Wizard, and Severus returned, largely unnoticed, to the shadows until the meeting drew to a close and he could finally take his leave from Number 12, Grimmauld Place.

He did not, however, leave alone.

***

While Severus was anything but inexperienced, sharing his bed with the same partner two nights in a row was utterly unprecedented, but somehow he found himself sitting up in bed at 11:56 PM, holding a glass of Laphroaig with one hand and stroking Minerva's still quite lovely breasts with his other.

"Thank you for my present," Severus murmured quietly, when he was sure that Minerva had already fallen asleep.

"I'm glad you're enjoying the whisky," replied Minerva.

"I am," he said, setting his glass down on the bedside table. "But I didn't actually mean the whisky."

"No," Minerva said kindly, extinguishing the light and settling Severus in her warm embrace. "I know you didn't."

**Author's Note:**

> Ordinarily, I wouldn't include a banner, but I'm amused to have won an award for which I'd barely remembered having been nominated. *g*


End file.
